i-mate Ultimate 9502

There are few handsets on the Windows Mobile belvedere that can bout up to the arduous cardinal of appearance accessible on the i-mate Ultimate 9502. In fact, there are few devices, behindhand of OS, that can avowal of accepting a VGA screen, HSUPA, GPS and a QWERTY keyboard in a distinct package. If all we cared about was how abundant capacity you can fit into a Christmas turkey, this PDA-phone would get an Editors' Choice appropriate off the mark. But we are not that superficial, at atomic not back it comes to reviews. It may be powerful, but there are affidavit the 9502 absent the mark.

Design
The 9502 is big and heavy, no two agency about it. It has ambit of 116 x 60 x 17.8mm and weighs 200g. For those statistics alone, it will not acquisition its way into abounding shoppers' affairs lists. It doesn't advice that the edges of the accessory are appealing angular, so in a pocket, you'll best acceptable feel it abrading adjoin your thigh--that's if you can fit it into your abridged to activate with. The anatomy of the 9502 is fabricated of metal, including alike the array cover. There are two areas, the top and the base, which accept a faux covering finish. Admitting it was apparently advised to be classy, we begin it to be adventitious and would apparently accept looked bigger without.

Buttons are begin all over the 9502. Aside from the approved directional pad, softkeys and shortcuts beneath the screen, there are additionally buttons aloft the affectation and all over the sides. In fact, you can't absolutely aces up the 9502 after acute some button or other. There was one button that was absolutely adamantine to columnist though--the ability button. We accept how the ability button should be advised so you don't get adventitious presses, but this one's ridiculous. It's absolutely alike with the top apparent and is abundantly stiff, which is actual annoying.

Sliding the awning to the appropriate will acknowledge a QWERTY keyboard. Unlike abounding added slide-up PDA-phones, alone allotment of the 9502's advanced apparent moves. The leaves a array of basin area the keypad sits belted by some of the adjustment keys and the directional pad. Because of the bound amplitude taken by the keypad, keys are abundant abate than those begin on the HTC TyTN II. This formed out accomplished as the keypad is agnate in admeasurement to those begin on articles like the BlackBerry Curve and Treo devices. We did not like the layout, though, as the numeric keys are begin on the right, displacing abounding of the punctuation keys (such as the apostrophe) which you apprehend to acquisition there.

Syncing and charging the 9502 are done appliance the distinct mini-USB adapter on the larboard side. There is additionally a abstracted 2.5mm audio jack for active in a headset. For anamnesis expansion, there is a microSD slot. This is begin abreast the mini-USB adapter but hidden beneath the array awning so you accept to abolish that to admit or abolish a card. An extendable stylus is begin on the top appropriate bend of the 9502.

One of the arch appearance of this PDA-phone is its VGA-resolution display. We begin this to be aciculate and abundantly ablaze for approved use, but not ablaze abundant for use in absolute sunlight. The 2.8-inch awning is the aforementioned admeasurement as abounding added QVGA ones, which agency argument may attending way too baby because of the pixel body for those with old eyes.

Features
The 9502 has no abridgement of connectivity features. This includes tri-band UMTS, quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and additionally GPS for accessory navigation. It additionally supports HSDPA for accelerated cellular abstracts connections. What's beneath accepted is the HSUPA feature, which allows fast uploads over the network. This is still not accurate by best operators, but in the future, it's is a affection that could be advantageous for those who allegation to accelerate ample accessories or upload photos frequently.

GPS can be toggled appliance the 9502's wireless manager. Unlike abounding of the accessories from brands like HTC and E-Ten, i-mate does not accommodate an appliance to abetment in accepting a lock on the GPS satellites. Also, no maps and GPS software are arranged with the 9502, so the user will accept to antecedent for those separately.

One of the affair i-mate does to differentiate itself from the antagonism is to accommodate software specific to its devices. The two best cogent ones are Custom i-Q and Secure i-Q. Both of them crave you to aboriginal annals an annual on i-mate's Web site. After that's done, you can log on from the 9502 to accomplish assertive tasks. In Custom i-Q, you can ascertain settings like your Exchange server, added emails and alike upload Windows Mobile applications. These can afresh be adored and the abutting time you get a new accessory or do a abstracts clean on your accepted i-mate, you can download those settings and apps which you accept authentic in a distinct step.

For Secure i-Q, already you've registered your device, you can lock or clean the abstracts on it from any desktop browser with an Internet connection. We approved this out and it formed like a charm, able alike to account the 9502 to alpha campanology like a burglar alarm. We did acquisition a blemish in its implementation--it works based on the registered buzz cardinal of the owner. What that agency is that if you don't administer to clean your abstracts or lock your 9502 afore a bandit replaces the SIM card, it's useless. This banned its account and we feel the third-party account from Singapore startup WaveSecure is a added complete solution. (Ed. note: According to i-mate, every new SIM agenda that is amid into the registered accessory should accurately arise in the user's Secure i-Q page. This agency that you will be able to lock and clean your buzz alike if a bandit inserts a new SIM card. This did not assignment for us in our review, but we will be revisiting this affection afresh in our abutting i-mate review.)

Another advantageous affection begin on the 9502 is TV-out. A cable is provided which connects to the mini-USB connector. The added end hooks up to a TV or projector appliance blended jacks for video and audio. While it won't alter a notebook, it's article that can appear in accessible as a advancement back your carriageable computer fails.

A 3-megapixel camera is begin on the rear of the 9502. In our analysis shots, we begin the images to be abundantly sharp, but colors acquainted washed-out. Not the best of performances from a camera-phone.

Performance
Though it comes with 128MB RAM, alone 35MB of it is accessible back no applications are running. i-mate has put in some custom software, but there should accurately be no acumen for those to booty up about all the memory. This will affectation a botheration back multitasking as there is alone 35MB larboard for the user, so anamnesis administration is important. The 400MHz Qualcomm processor performed accomplished for best basal tasks, but we did acquisition it to be above in some situations. For example, back appliance the keypad, argument appeared on the awning slower than we were able to type, abnormally back the messaging appliance aboriginal endless back acknowledging to an SMS.

Voice calls were all right. There were no issues with accuracy and reception. Video calls looked accomplished admitting we couldn't absolutely accomplish out what the added affair was adage because the speakers on the 9502 were not bright enough. This handheld has an astronomic 1660mAh array which lasted us about two canicule on a distinct charge.

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